Tag Archives: Interbike

Come to Revelate Booth #21070 at Interbike at 4PM on Thursday, September 22 for a “Meet and Treat”. We’ll talk about the Trans Am and Tour Divide and eat snacks. I promise we’ll have chocolate milk.

The gas station tour of America

During the Trans Am I bought all of my food at gas stations and ate all of my meals while riding. Popping in and out of a gas station is much faster than navigating a full-sized grocery store, waiting for someone to prepare food or even buying fast-food. Time on the bike is miles. Over the 18 days of the Trans Am and two runs on the Tour Divide last summer, I’ve visited hundreds of gas stations. They are not all equal.

During the Trans Am I survived mostly on chocolate milk– full fat if I could find it. TrueMoo is not very good, but it’s better than Nesquick. Full fat Darigold is delicious. By the end of the race, I switched to regular whole milk. Almost every gas station in Kansas had hot pizza slices, easy to eat even when they’re cold. It’s hard to make really bad pizza. I ate a lot of cheese danishes– they never taste good, but they’re pretty neutral. During the Tour Divide I survived mostly on Fritos and cheese– cheddar if I could find it, but mostly individual packets of string cheese. It tastes like nachos. As far as potato chips go, I’d select Ruffles or Kettle Chips over Lay’s Original because they don’t crumble as easily. I got really sick of chips during Tour Divide and switched to Cheez-Its and crackers. I quit eating hot dogs after Tour Divide. I’ll also never eat another eggroll, corn dog, or taquito from a hot dog roller, although never is a pretty strong word. For nutrients, I drank lots of smoothie juices and tomato juice. In hot weather, I prefer PayDay to other candy bars because they don’t have chocolate and don’t melt in the sun. Yellow Gatorade only tastes good when it’s hot as hell outside. After burning out on Clif bars, I switched to Sunbelt granola bars, typically the oats & honey flavor. They’re greasy and taste like cookies. Cookies taste good almost all the time. Muffins make messes. A pack of nuts is good emergency food, but rarely appetizing. Ice cream is rocket fuel, but the downside is that you can’t pack it away for later.

Gas stations are better in Mexico because they have fruits and vegetables.